Conservation and development of medicinal plants of Cham community in Ninh Thuan Province
Cham population in Ninh Thuan province consists of 61,359 accounting for 11.3% of the province population. Cham people has long established the own traditional medicinal and medical treatment system on basis of Eastern indian and chinese influence. Surveys showed that up to 15.5% of Cham households produce traditional medicines for income. The villages with the most households doing this occupation are An Nhon and Phuoc Nhon of Xuan Hai Commune, Ninh Hai District, with the rate of 54.77%.
Research showed that Cham people in Ninh Thuan have been using 300 plant species for medicine production, which belong to 97 plant families. Oriental medicines annual sales volumes (both domestically and to neighboring countries including Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and China) in An Nhon and Phuoc Nhon amount to 300 tons of dried volume, equivalent to 3,000 fresh materials. These materials are 100% naturally harvested and therefore have been exhausted and even disappeared. Havesting practice is to deep dig to lift up the plant roots, which is not sustainable.
There are problems associated with the current practice:
- Great demand for natural plant materials to sell as medicines by majority of the local population with unsustainable practices, plus the harsh weather conditions of Ninh Thuan (Ninh Thuan has dry weather with the least rainfall in the country) has put great pressure on the volume of natural materials left in the municipalities, which is likely to lead to extinction of valuable plant species.
- Obsolete techniques for making medicines from the naturally harvested materials leading to wastage and low quality products
- Lack of connection between the traditional medicines producers/traders to create a brand for the oriental medicines of Cham people in Xuan Hai Commune
Furthermore, the unfavourable weather conditions in Ninh Thuan have also been exacebating the inability of the plants to regenerate after massive natural harvesting for medicines production.
As a consequence, conservation of the natural medicinal plants in Ninh Thuan in general and in Xuan Hai in particular is an urgent task both in terms of environmental protection and livelihoods.
Objective of the project: To develop a demonstration model for conservation of the medicinal plants and strengthen traditional knowledge to contribute to sustain the medicine production as an income-generating occupation of Cham people in Ninh Thuan.
Major activities:
- Strengthen knowledge and capacity of the local Cham people on conservation of traditional medicinal plants in Ninh Thuan
- Participatory develop the medicinal production village with regulations in medicines use and treatment
- Establish conservation gardens to store valuale and highly endangered plant species.
- Set up home medicinal gardens and centralized plantations to provide materials for medicines production.
- Collect and document traditional knowledge in using and conserving the medicinal plants
- Develop brand names for Cham people?s medicines production villages
- Assess the formation of tourists? Craft villages tour using combination of Cham?s Craft village and Bau Truc pottery village in Ninh Thuan and the Medicinal production village.
Research showed that Cham people in Ninh Thuan have been using 300 plant species for medicine production, which belong to 97 plant families. Oriental medicines annual sales volumes (both domestically and to neighboring countries including Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and China) in An Nhon and Phuoc Nhon amount to 300 tons of dried volume, equivalent to 3,000 fresh materials. These materials are 100% naturally harvested and therefore have been exhausted and even disappeared. Havesting practice is to deep dig to lift up the plant roots, which is not sustainable.
There are problems associated with the current practice:
- Great demand for natural plant materials to sell as medicines by majority of the local population with unsustainable practices, plus the harsh weather conditions of Ninh Thuan (Ninh Thuan has dry weather with the least rainfall in the country) has put great pressure on the volume of natural materials left in the municipalities, which is likely to lead to extinction of valuable plant species.
- Obsolete techniques for making medicines from the naturally harvested materials leading to wastage and low quality products
- Lack of connection between the traditional medicines producers/traders to create a brand for the oriental medicines of Cham people in Xuan Hai Commune
Furthermore, the unfavourable weather conditions in Ninh Thuan have also been exacebating the inability of the plants to regenerate after massive natural harvesting for medicines production.
As a consequence, conservation of the natural medicinal plants in Ninh Thuan in general and in Xuan Hai in particular is an urgent task both in terms of environmental protection and livelihoods.
Objective of the project: To develop a demonstration model for conservation of the medicinal plants and strengthen traditional knowledge to contribute to sustain the medicine production as an income-generating occupation of Cham people in Ninh Thuan.
Major activities:
- Strengthen knowledge and capacity of the local Cham people on conservation of traditional medicinal plants in Ninh Thuan
- Participatory develop the medicinal production village with regulations in medicines use and treatment
- Establish conservation gardens to store valuale and highly endangered plant species.
- Set up home medicinal gardens and centralized plantations to provide materials for medicines production.
- Collect and document traditional knowledge in using and conserving the medicinal plants
- Develop brand names for Cham people?s medicines production villages
- Assess the formation of tourists? Craft villages tour using combination of Cham?s Craft village and Bau Truc pottery village in Ninh Thuan and the Medicinal production village.
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Project Snapshot
Grantee:
Vietnam Orientally Traditional Medicine Association of Ninh Thuan Province
Country:
Viet nam
Area Of Work:
Biodiversity
Grant Amount:
US$ 50,000.00
Co-Financing Cash:
US$ 25,000.00
Co-Financing in-Kind:
US$ 12,000.00
Project Number:
VN/SGP/OP4/Y2/RAF/08/005
Status:
Satisfactorily Completed
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Project Characteristics and Results
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
- A large portion of Cham people in Ninh Thuan Province know how to use medicine to cure their own diseases. Cham people are renowned for their long lasting traditional medicinal profession. A survey on 10 communes with high population of Cham people reveals that 15.51% of the surveyed households have on medicine profession. The majority of those households focus in Xuan Hai Communes and Ninh Hai communes (54.77% of the households in the 2 communes have medicine profession). Cham people take up to 99% of the population of An Nhon an Phuoc Nhon village (2 out of 5 villages of Xuan Hai) with 60% of these have medicine profession
- 3000 tons of raw medicinal herbs are exploited annually from the natural sources.
- The traditional medicinal herb exploiting methods are mainly root digging, cutting herb plant off the ground for tree bark or for the whole medicinal plant body for later drying and grounding, etc. leading to the potential extinction of local medicinal plant species. The community's medicinal herb processing techniques are very limited, outdated and inefficient. The medicinal herb processing activities in the commune are unorganized, scattered among households
- The project focus on solutions to the current problems of Cham medicine profession community:
+ Propagating about their traditional knowledge of medicinal profession of Cham people to help the protecting and preserving of this knowledge
+ Focus on preservation and sustainable exploitation of extinction-threatened species in the localty.
+ Provide guide and instruction to Cham people on medicinal herb collecting, seedling nursery, soil fertilizing, planting and harvesting
+ Organize trainings on harvesting method and processing of medicinal herbs of Cham people. Emphasize the innovations of the method and the positive difference on the processed medicine once processed correctly
+ Provide the medicinal profession community with some equipment and machines for the medicinal herb processing like specialized cutting tools, grounding machines, herb dryer oven, etc. with guidance for operating
+ Establishing Cham People's Medicinal Herb Association in Xuan Hai Commune.
+ Support the brand establishment of Cham Herbal Medicines and promote on mass media about Cham medicinal profession
Notable Community Participation
- Disseminate information about the projects to the whole community. The community participate in the launching, period review and final review of the project
- Foster community participation in all activities of the project. To successfully build the project's model in the chosen communes, the communes' residents vote to pick the household that will participate in the projects, based on the Steering Committee's criteria.
- Encourage the community (even people who were not chosen to join the project) to participate in the patrol control, monitoring and evaluation of the project as well as replicate the project's activities at their own household.
- Take into consideration the local traditional customs and culture values to design the training appropriately
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SGP Country office contact
Ms. Huyen Thu Thi NGUYEN
Phone:
(84 24) 38500150
Fax:
(84-24) 37265520
Email:
Ms. Ngoc Bich Kieu
Email:
Address
One Green UN house, 304 Kim Ma district
Hanoi, 100000
Hanoi, 100000
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